2014: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In last
year’s New Year’s column I contended that the Iranian nuclear issue is undoubtedly
the most important question the United States would be facing in the coming
year, and – for once – my prediction turned out to be largely correct. The ongoing
negotiations, which began in January, were recently extended into 2015 – and
the repercussions have impacted US foreign policy in a major way.

Meanwhile, in spite of Israeli sabotage, the talks between Tehran and the West continue – and war has so far been averted. That’s the best thing that has happened in ages – and we should all be grateful we’ve been spared the horrors of what would amount to World War III.

Another positive factor on the diplomatic front has been the opening to Cuba,
undertaken by the Obama administration with uncharacteristic boldness. Protests
by such throwbacks as Sen. Marco Rubio and the usual neocon suspects have only
underscored their posturing unreasonableness: polls show the majority of Americans
support the move. Chalk up another victory for non-interventionism and the subversive
idea that trade and free travel between nations is the best remedy for dealing
with the infections brought on by totalitarian sclerosis.

The debate over the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden, which threw back the curtain on the National Security Agency’s worldwide spying operation, reached a fever pitch in 2014, with political implications that have yet to fully play out. The Obama administration’s intellectual Praetorian Guard went all-out in an attempt to trivialize and justify the Surveillance State, denigrating and smearing both Snowden and the journalists who brought this story to the American people. What struck me is that the Regime’s most enthusiastic defenders were, for the most part, self-identified "progressives," such as Prof. Sean Wilentz (a prominent friend of Hillary Clinton), George "I was for the Iraq war before I was against it" Packer, and Cass Sunstein, former Obama administration official and advocate of a sinister plan to "infiltrate" the Internet with pro-government agents.

On the other side of the barricades stood libertarian Republicans like Rep.
Justin Amash and Sen. Rand Paul, who opened up a bipartisan offensive against
the NSA’s embryonic police state. Meanwhile, the Snowden revelations continued
to pile up – with the
very worst being new documents showing that the British intelligence agencies
have been instructing our spooks in the basics of targeting online – and destroying
– political dissidents. Cass Sunstein’s "theoretical" arguments in
favor of this practice – reminiscent of something the East German Stasi would
do – should at least raise the possibility that such activities are even now
being carried out by our benevolent masters in Washington.

Which brings us to the negative side of the ledger, where there’s plenty to
cover – and that’s no surprise, now is it? I have to say that the very worst,
at least in terms of its moral implications, was Israel’s destruction of Gaza – a disgusting orgy of murderous vindictiveness that once and for all underscored
the pariah status of a nation maddened by endless war. Gaza is still in ruins,
with tens of thousands homeless and reconstruction stalled. Particularly revolting
was the spectacle of the Western media covering up and implicitly justifying
the carnage – whose victims were mainly children. In spite of this rather obvious
media bias, the international image of Israel was irreparably damaged – and
while militant Palestinians and their supporters may find this to be a plus,
as far as I’m concerned the price was far too high.

Worst of all in terms of its implications for the future, the US has re-entered
– that is, re-invaded – Iraq, in response to the emergence of the "Islamic
State," an entity not-so-covertly
supported by our "allies" Saudi Arabia and the Gulf sheikdoms.
ISIS, as it is alternately known, has done its best to provoke a US response
by executing American journalists and aid workers, and Washington – ever eager
to be provoked – took the bait. Without a vote of Congress or any meaningful
debate, Iraq War III has commenced, with thousands of American soldiers in the
role of "advisors" – sound familiar to those of you who remember the
Vietnam war? – and the prospect of incremental escalation as time goes on.

While no one believes the outcome of this Iraqi adventure is going to be any better than the last two, the old rule book that dictates "three strikes and you’re out" is apparently unknown to our wise rulers, who just can’t accept defeat under any circumstances.

Back in 2013, the Obama administration was slapped down by a suddenly awakened American public when the President announced we were going to bomb Syria in response to a supposed chemical weapons attack by Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad on al-Qaeda linked rebels. Washington backed down in the face of public outrage, but the Syrian regime change operation – a pet project of Hillary Clinton‘s – got a shot in the arm when ISIS appeared on the horizon. We are now sending even more "aid" to the Islamist barbarians who want to establish a Sunni "caliphate" in the Levant. This, in tandem with our alliance with the de facto independent state of Kurdistan, is a recipe for trouble on a regional scale – another tripwire that could easily turn into a conflict with Iran and the Syrian regime on one side and the US and its regional sock puppets – including Israel – on the other.

Potentially even more destabilizing is the advent of a new cold war with Russia: our regime change campaign in Ukraine, which succeeded in overthrowing the democratically elected government, has resulted in a full-scale civil war in which thousands have been killed. Air strikes on civilian population centers by the "pro-Western" Kiev regime are routine, while the Western media – so quick to focus on the suffering of the Yazidis, the Darfurians, etc. – turns a blind eye. US military aid to Ukraine is a crucial factor in prolonging the war – a conflict that would have bankrupted the coup leaders in Kiev without Western support.

US relations with Russia haven’t been this bad since the Bad Old Days of the Cuban missile crisis, with both liberals and conservatives (as well as some fake "libertarians") jumping on the cold war bandwagon. The thieving oligarchs who fled Putin’s Russia have plenty of cash to spread around, and they are funding media outlets like "The Interpreter," run by neocon publicist Michael Weiss, to make sure the narrative of Russia Resurgent (a "revisionist, revanchist power," as Russia-hater Anne Applebaum puts it) becomes the conventional wisdom.

Their objective: regime change in Moscow and the subjugation of the Slavic world under the heel of the European Union. Sanctions have hurt the Europeans, but they have hurt the Russians more, whose ridiculously statist economic arrangements have set them up for a painful fall. Yet for all of Putin’s many faults, the alleged democrats of the West will pine for him when they meet his probable successor. Weimar Russia is likely to produce results similar to those that occurred in Weimar Germany in the 1930s – and then the neocons can yell about how every move toward peace is "another Munich" with rather more justification. Which is precisely what they want.

Even more depressing is the recent contretemps with North Korea over their
alleged hack of Sony Entertainment because of a silly movie that dramatized
the assassination of Kim Jong-un – a "comedy" that would have never
attracted the least amount of attention but for the FBI’s solemn declaration
that the hack job was retaliation by the North Koreans for insulting the Dear
Leader. That a growing number of computer experts dispute this conclusion –
and instead point to criminal gangs, teenage Japanese hackers, a disgruntled
Sony insider, or some combination of these – is being steadfastly ignored by
the Washington know-it-alls, who apparently were behind two cyber-attacks that
took down North Korea’s laughable Internet infrastructure.

The “mainstream” media went along with the gag, until the protests of the experts
became too loud for them to ignore. What’s especially galling about this is
the fact that our "journalists" are not only easy to fool – they apparently
want to be fooled. The Fourth Estate didn’t learn their lesson from the
Iraq war, when they touted fabricated "evidence" of Iraq’s "weapons
of mass destruction" and repeated US government talking points uncritically.
It remained for non-mainstream outlets like Antiwar.com to
report the truth.

Which brings me back to the Good, as opposed to the Bad and the Ugly. Antiwar.com
had a very good year: our audience continues to grow. We got a Drudge link –
for me a longstanding ambition that I never thought would be realized. And our
readers responded positively to our continuing fundraising
efforts: this last fundraiser was far less onerous than previous campaigns,
and for that I shall be eternally grateful. Speaking of which …

The new year brings with it opportunities for peace as well as war clouds darkening
the horizon: a rising awareness of the costs of war on the part of the public
as well as an increasing war hysteria on the part of our political elites. Which
can only mean one thing: 2015, like its predecessor, will consist of the Good,
the Bad, and the Downright Ugly. Make sure you tune in to this space – and this
web site – to find out which is which.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN

You can check out my Twitter feed by going here.
But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often
made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.

Author: Justin Raimondo

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, and a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative, and writes a monthly column for Chronicles. He is the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement [Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993; Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000], and An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard [Prometheus Books, 2000].
View all posts by Justin Raimondo